Recently, I received The Recovery Agent from a particularly well-read aunt who thought I’d enjoy the story. The Recovery Agent is a recent (2022) novel from the prolific writer Janet Evanovich. Evanovich has written almost as many novels as Taylor Swift has breakup songs, but her books are new to me, so I was in.

The heroine of The Recovery Agent is Gabriella Rose, a stylish yet well-armed a 30-year-old who’s been on her own since her marriage failed after one year. Rose is a recovery agent who mainly investigates insurance fraud but also takes special jobs. As such, for her the laws are more like guidelines than for most of us. One of the things she dreads most is red tape.

The Recovery Agent Summary – Plot Basics

The plot engine to the story is a little tortuous. Rose comes from a small fishing town in South Carolina. A category four hurricane has recently leveled said town, and many of the townspeople lack insurance. (A far better, and perhaps more likely, plot device would have been that they did have storm insurance but a corrupt company was refusing to honor their claims.) So, even though she hasn’t lived there in years, Rose undertakes a treasure hunt to find a priceless historical artifact, the Seal of Solomon, sell it to a collector, and thus save her hometown. Like I wrote above, a torturous way to get the plot in motion, but at least Evanovich doesn’t spend much time on the details.

Rose has help. She’s descended from pirates—Blackbeard, in fact—and manages to find a diary from Sir Francis Drake that will get her started. She also has a ghost, Annie, who gives timely hints to her grandmother. Plus, she ends up bringing her former husband with her on the treasure hunt, since he was living in the family house containing the buried chest with Drake’s diary. This turns out well from a plot perspective—plenty of tension between Gabriella and Rafer to keep The Recovery Agent moving along.

Their adversary is formidable, however. A mid-level Peruvian drug lord named El Dragón is also after the Seal of Solomon. Worse, El Dragón also fancies himself the High Priest of Supay, the Incan God of Death. He has money, fanatical followers, and a firm belief that the Seal of Solomon will allow him to summon a demon army and conquer the world.

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Parts I Liked

The best part was the pacing of The Recovery Agent. Like most adventures stories, the plot moved along nicely, and Evanovich didn’t wait long before springing some new dangers on Gabriella and Rafer. At times the humor was well done, too. I needed a little while to appreciate it, because the book isn’t a true comedy, but it’s there, and usually timely.

In addition, the story takes the reader to some exotic places in Peru and the Caribbean. I wouldn’t say the environment plays a huge role in the story in more than a couple chapters, but that part was fine. It suited the purpose and pacing of the book. Finally, since I don’t read contemporary stories that often, the information-gathering technology employed by Gabriella also served to keep things moving. (If you want a heroine who puzzles things out to succeed through intellect, this is not the book for you. Why do that when you have Internet searches?)

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Parts I Appreciated Less

I have a few, some picky and some more general. Probably the most disappointing to me was that Gabriella had no subtlety. Every time, she charged into danger head-on, requiring someone, usually Rafer, to bail her out. Good for plot tension, but if she’s supposed to be good at her job, shouldn’t Gabriella learn from her mistakes a little quicker and be less predictable?

Then there’s the fact that her guide in Peru is the nephew of a major drug lord. She ends up using some of the drug lord’s resources in her efforts to defeat El Dragón and find the Seal of Solomon. This is morally questionable, at best, especially when The Recovery Agent becomes essentially a revenge novel in the last quarter of the book. In a couple scenes, Gabriella has (very brief and simplistic) second thoughts, but always concludes that continuing her quest for revenge is the best course.

Additionally, I thought the portrayal of characters other than Gabriella and Rafer was below par. El Dragón, I get. When you are bent on using demons for world conquest, you don’t require complex character traits. However, characters like Pepe and Caballo deserved better. I wouldn’t say the South American characters were quite stereotyped. But all the secondary characters were pretty much the same character—people willing to go along with Gabriella, a source of humor, and occasionally helpful.

Finally, I’ll get a little picky with the dismissive treatment of the Incas and their military technology. “The fact that Pizzaro had guns and the Incas had slingshots might also have had something to do with their demise.” Smallpox and civil war had a lot more to do with Pizzaro’s conquest of the Incas than a few arquebuses did, but this story gives us the same bogus view of the Incas as a 1980s history textbook. It’s a small detail, sure. But, now that we know better, authors should give their readers better. No wonder I spent most of my teaching career trying to get students to understand that the native people of the Americas didn’t just float through history, leaving no lasting trace of their actions.

The Recovery Agent Review – Who Will Like This Book

If your greatest desire is a fast-paced adventure story, pick up the book. You’ll probably like it. The Recovery Agent has lots of action, decent dialogue, and some humorous scenes. Plus, treasure hunts usually make for fun stories. Giving the story a quest aspect is one more reason to cheer the hero and keep the plot going. The villain, El Dragón, is sufficiently villainous, even if he kinda sucks at actually killing the important people. If this sounds like your thing, then chances are high that The Recovery Agent will satisfy you.

However, if your taste runs more to character development, historical backstory for the treasure hunt, or making the environment an active agent in the story, this book will be less satisfying. It doesn’t fail totally, but it could be better in these areas. Likewise if you expect your heroes to be reasonably intellectual to go with their gunplay skills.

I suppose it’s probably best to err on the side of action rather than character in a treasure hunt, and this book does so.

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